Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky failed to obtain Tomahawk missiles for strikes on Russia from a meeting with Donald Trump on Friday, with the US president later calling for both sides to cease fighting and accept current battle lines, CNN reports.
Zelensky had traveled to Washington hoping to receive the long-range cruise missiles, which he believes could deliver a decisive blow to the Kremlin’s war economy by enabling targeted strikes on oil and energy facilities deep inside Russia.
However, during opening remarks at a White House working lunch, Trump expressed hopes to resolve the war “without thinking about Tomahawks,” adding that the weapon is one America “needs.”
And Zelensky appeared to come away empty-handed, describing the meeting as “productive” but declining to comment further on Tomahawks because the US “doesn’t want escalation.”
Hours later, Trump made a public call for Kyiv and Moscow to “stop the war immediately.”
“You go by the battle line, wherever it is. Otherwise, it’s too complicated. You’ll never be able to figure it out. You stop at the battle line,” Trump told reporters upon landing in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“And both sides should go home, go to their families, stop the killing. And that should be it,” he added, saying that he’d communicated that sentiment to both Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The meeting came a day after Trump spoke on the phone with Putin and agreed to meet him soon in Hungary.
During that call, Putin is said to have stressed that Tomahawks – which have the range to target major Russian cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg – would have no significant impact on the battlefield. But they would damage the US-Russian relationship, he argued.
